Creamy Sausage Linguini

Half an onion, then slice each half, and fry slowly until softened and taking on some colour. Remove the onion from the pan, then fry off a handful of pancetta (or a couple of chopped slices of bacon) and again remove. Now add 6 chopped sausages and brown them.

Once the sausages are browned put the onion and pancetta back in the pan and turn up the heat to colour the onion a little more. Add a small pot of double cream (about 284ml) and the same amount of beef stock, along with the leaves of a couple of sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf. Season, using a good amount of pepper.

Bring the mixture to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook until the sauce reduces and thickens. Remove the bay leaf and woody sprigs of the thyme.

In the meantime cook some linguine, then serve it with the sauce.

This is filling and will easily serve 4.

Breakfast.....Any Time

Bacon and eggs (in the form of a plain omelette) make a great breakfast. Or lunch. Or light dinner, or late night munchies snack, or....

Tea for One

I’m not a big tea drinker. I don’t like heavy, strong teas and I can’t stand tea with milk. But the one tea I really do like is the light and aromatic Earl Grey. A few years back I was very much into aromatherapy and it was the essential oil of bergamot in Earl Grey that enticed me.

Rob is a fan of the stronger English Breakfast tea, which he likes milky with sugar, so we have opposite tastes where tea is concerned. To make things easier and to accommodate our different tastes we use tea bags. Most mornings I have coffee anyway.

But every now and then I like to indulge in a small pot of loose Earl Grey tea. I bought myself a pretty china ‘tea for one’ pot which makes me feel rather elegant. I like the ceremony of counting out the spoonfuls of tea into the pot, pouring on the hot water, stirring it, popping the lid back on the pot and leaving the tea to brew. I feel like I’m winding back the years and embracing the very English tradition of making and drinking real tea. On these occasions I like to sit back in the afternoon with a book and the tea pot on a table beside me, taking a little time out to be still whilst sipping the soothing drink and inhaling its beautiful scent.

A Delicious Steak Marinade

Massage your steak with soy sauce and crushed garlic cloves and leave to marinade for at least 30 minutes, but the longer the better.

This really is tasty and although it uses soy sauce, it doesn't have to have Chinese accompaniments such as rice - I often have it just with chips. It's a variation on a Nigella Laswon steak marinade and it's fabulous.